Renewal - Revelation 21:1-8

Okay, now we're getting to chapters 21 and 22 over these next four weeks, including today. And those chapters include some really neat stuff because it's all about the eternal state, as it's sometimes called. It's all about the new heavens and new earth.

And it'll be a place very different from the place we live now and a time, if time really means anything, very different from the time we have now. You've got on the first page of your handout a chart there that shows a timeline. It says Revelation 21 through 8 should be Revelation 21, so correct that. But what it starts with is you've got the first coming of Christ, you have the church age, and then what's shown as a small arrow there is that's where we are now. And I'm being presumptuous that we're close to the time when the Lord will take us home. We then have labeled the arrow up for the rapture, the time when the Lord takes us to be with Him, those who are of the church from Acts chapter 2 until the day of the rapture.

And by the way, over this last You know, a couple weeks here I've been emailing with someone talking about, you know, because there's all these different rapture views. And I, you know, some will say, well, you can't tell which one's which. I beg to differ. I believe it is categorically a pre-tribulation rapture. I have no questions in the palms. For anyone who claims any other timing for the rapture, I can easily point out the flaws and errors and the deficiencies in that view. I think it's a hands down.

The Lord's going to take us to be with Him before the tribulation period begins. At any rate, Ben, as we go through these last couple of chapters, one of the things we're going to notice that started early in the book of Genesis or fulfilled or was changed or contrasted was the last chapter of Revelation. And so you see in the chart on the lower left, Genesis and Revelation, some contrast. Here in Genesis, the heavens and the earth were created.

And now in Revelation 21.1, the new heavens and the new earth.

In Genesis 1.16, the sun is created.

In chapter 21, we're going to see in verse 23, not today, no need of the sun. Why no need of the sun? It's just going to be dark all the time. We'll be happy with that? That's right. God himself is the source of light. See, right now we live in a place where the sun is a temporary analogy. The sun provides the light and energy and all that, but it's a temporary analogy. What this describes is the Lord Himself is the light and the source of light, and so there's no need for the sun.

The next one, the night is established. That's in verse 5. Remember, what does it say? After each day of creation there was evening and there was morning and there was night. All that. The whole cycle of day and night. No night there. Sorry, if you like nightlife, you're not going to have any, you know. Yep, not going to be any, right? Serpent on the earth, a serpent in the lake of fire. The curse given, no more curse.

We'll see that in chapter 22 there. Death enters history. Here in this chapter, in the passage we're looking at today, no more death. driven from the tree, in chapter 3 verse 24 of Genesis, restored to the tree, 22-14. By the way, let's ask the question, why were Adam and Eve driven from the tree?

Was God just being nasty? What was the reason? Well, it was a tree of life, so they would have been in sin eternally. They would have been in sin and the consequences of sin stuck in that mode. essentially driven from the Tree of Life in order for mankind to recognize the need for salvation, one, and two, in order to understand what true eternal life is.

Living with this constant death is not a good thing. So God's driving Adam and Eve from the Garden where the Tree of Life was, was actually His way of providing for a better salvation, if you will. Death enters history. No more death. Driven from the tree, restored to the tree. Sorrow and pain begin. No more mourning, crying, or pain.

So, revelation is either an answer to the problem or a contrast to, either because something is no longer there that was or because something is new, newly created or replaced. So there is some contrast, correspondence in every single case. And by the way, I wouldn't be surprised if you could think of some more, but that's just for starters. Now, on top of page two, so get ready to stretch your thinking a bit. Let's begin by reading Revelation 21.

There are several passages that tell us about either the passing away of the present heavens and the earth or the creation of a new or both. These passages, Matthew 24-35, Mark 13-31, that's where Jesus would say, this is going to be the way something is until heaven and earth passes away. So that's where that shows up. 2 Peter 3-7 and 10-12 that's listed there are the obliteration of this present heavens and earth. the vaporization, and then Revelation 2011, like we see here, the creation of the new heavens and new earth.

We talked last week and surfaced the idea about some of the reasons why God wouldn't want to create a new heavens and new earth. Earth was a place of rebellion, right? Earth was a place of rebellion and we saw that starting in Genesis 3, continuing on into Revelation just a couple chapters back. Heaven was also a place of rebellion.

Satan, interestingly, why didn't God just say to Satan and the angels, hey, you know, your will's fixed, you don't get a choice. Why didn't God just say to the angels, nobody's disobeying here, I'm not going to give you a chance to do that. Is that curious? Why would God do it that way?

I don't know if this is an answer, but I think a man, to be like God, has to experience evil. And I think Satan was created so having been introduced to evil. And if he turns from that and accepts God, then that's not a puppet, but a genuine servant. Really interesting, the Lord has dealt differently, some comparisons, but also dealt differently with the angels, who are spiritual beings, than he has with us, who are human beings. spiritual beings as well.

Wouldn't that also be a means of His displaying of His grace? How would God's character be shown were there not the opportunity? His mercy and His grace are something that would not even become evident were it not for that opportunity to show it to us. And also I think God is the ultimate to bring glory to him and scripture says that's the ultimate.

And yet all these other pieces are there to do that. And the angels are part of that. They're all part of the plan. So how does it all fit together? It's like a big jigsaw puzzle with God being the pitcher. Yeah, you're quite correct. Here's what's interesting is God, as you pointed out, expressed grace and mercy to us as human beings, to the angels who don't have the same opportunity for salvation. Basically, when Satan and the angels decided to rebel against God, their destiny was stuck. There was no opportunity for salvation. But those angels who do love the Lord and remain faithful to Him, which is two-thirds by number, Those angels who did so, God teaches them about His mercy and His grace by telling the angels, you look at my saints.

That's Ephesians 3.10. Yeah. But the angels knew evil because some of them went to Satan. That's correct.

They were introduced to evil and when they were introduced to evil, they were stuck. Yeah, those who chose to fall, there was no reversing out of this. There was no restoration. And human beings, if you take away the time factor, once introduced to evil, are stuck too.

We just go through this time frame. But up there, there is eternity, so there isn't a time frame. We have this word called time. The indications are that God and the angelic beings don't experience time in the same way. We are stuck in a time tunnel.

We're seeing our own failed, sinful nature. That's correct. We see and experience what sinful nature looks like. But I think there's a personalization of that. In general, it's like personal sin in our lives. It's not just that we're out there sinners. It's that we understand our own personal sin. We know good and evil. One last thought.

What amazes me is that God was gracious, I guess the word is, enough that he would breathe his life into a being to allow it to become unclean with evil. Because He's holy, holy, holy. And to allow that to happen is just, to me, is phenomenal. Why He would even do that. Because it's His breath in us.

God took something that, from our perspective, we might give it a label, risk. And that's how we would look at it from God's standpoint. I don't know that the idea of risk means the same thing to him. He obviously knew what was going to take place, and obviously knew the consequences, and knew what would be the ultimate outcome. It allowed us to contaminate his life. Yeah. Wouldn't it have been easier and less painful for God not to have to send Christ? Right? Yeah, very interesting.

In the middle of page two, one of the points we make here is this new earth is not just sequentially new. The Greek word there is a simple one, kainos. It shows up a lot in the New Testament. And it means new in kind. And I think that's an important distinction.

This is not just, you know, we had the old earth and the old heavens and it didn't turn out, you know, perfectly. So let's try another one. This isn't another tri, this is a new in kind heaven and a new in kind earth. It's a different character. Now, the other thing that says no longer any sea, we're going to find out that there's actually good reason not to have any more sea. At first, that might seem real curious. We've got an earth with something on the order of two-thirds of the earth covered with sea. And we're talking about here's an earth where there isn't one. And what we're going to find out before too long here, if we have time, is that there's actually good reason for that. That's not just God decided to do something different. There's a purpose in that.

Let's look at verse 2, which is in the bottom of page 2. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. First half of verse two comes across like this in the Greek. And the city, the Holy One, New Jerusalem, I saw descending out of heaven from God.

Some more literal rendering there. The city, the Holy One, is what comes across there. If you see this place in Jerusalem, Wow. It's a place of a lot of turmoil, isn't it? A place of a lot of tension and stress. Even Jerusalem. Have the Jews got it all in control and under hand and it's all theirs? I think so. Yeah. In the end, it's a tough place. The Temple Mount, who runs the Temple Mount?

The Jews. Yeah, the Muslims do, right? It's run by the Muslims and they do just about whatever they wish with it. What's interesting is every major religion claims that as their home base no matter when they started or where they started. Yeah, here you have Christianity, you know, is Jerusalem is pivotal. Judaism, Jerusalem is pivotal, and Islam claims it as a pivotal place as well. It's like the third most holy site in Islam.

And don't they all go back to Abraham? And they all claim a descendancy from Abraham, who on Mount Moriah, where the temple is, was offering up, or ready to offer up Isaac. Except the Arabs say that it was Ishmael, right? The Arabs say it was Ishmael.

Yes, you're correct. Real interesting. The Arabs also say that this was some very special place for Muhammad, when in reality, historically, it's debatable that Muhammad was ever in Jerusalem. Ever. Okay. As you look down the page there, here is this New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.

What is interesting is that it never actually says that it's sitting on the earth. But the implication from when we read through the rest of it is that people on the earth most definitely have access in and out into this place. So if it's not touching the earth and sitting on it, it is very close. People can walk in and out of the gates. We've got three bullets in the middle of page three.

As marriage is designed by God to be permanent, Genesis 2.24, that is, at least in earthly terms, so this will be our eternal home, always, forever, and eternal. It will be eternally permanent, as opposed to marriage being, at least intended, to be earthly permanent.

As a bride is beautiful and gloriously adorned for her wedding, Ephesians 5.27 spells that out, So this stresses the beauty and glory of this city as it is adorned for the saints.

And thirdly, as the brightest to be pure, Ephesians 5.27, it pictures the purity of the new holy city.

Jerusalem today is not that. Essentially, Jerusalem today has a claim from Israel, from the Muslims, and the Palestinians. You basically got different kind of ethnic and religious groups that have claims. Plus in particular sites, there is domain from usually shared in some way different Christian groups as well. So you have this group or that one. And their things can be owned privately also depending on which group you're from and how you happen to manage it. So it's rather complicated.

This will be a pure holy city, unlike the stress and the strain and tension of modern-day Jerusalem. Now, an important point. This compares Jerusalem to a bride that does not make the statement that this is the bride of Christ. You see the difference? Remember how John says, you know, hair is white like wool. It doesn't mean that Jesus' hair is wool. He's doing that kind of a comparison here in this passage. He's using the idea of a bride, talking about the beauty and purity and all those things as a point of description of this city. It isn't the same as saying this new Jerusalem is exactly the bride of Christ. But we'll get to that question because later on it's going to show up in the passage. Okay. I don't know. We've got huge squirrels up there I think. Alright. Now, here is verse 3 and 4 in the bottom half of page 3.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them. And they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.

The first things have passed away." One of the things that strikes me as I see these two verses. No, no, no. Two of them. Two of them, okay? And we'll point out one of them. You keep getting the impression, especially looking at verse three, about this idea of among. And we'll take a closer look at that. The other thing is statements of absolutes. You know, we have cautions against making absolute statements in our culture. Never say never, right? and similar kinds of cautions, and at least a skepticism about something being absolute.

But he will wipe away a few tears from the eyes? Some? Most? More or less? Kind of? Sort of? No. Every. Every. There will be less death. A reduction in death. Is that what it is? No. There will no longer be very much. Any. Any. There will no longer be so much mourning or crying or pain. No. There won't be any mourning or crying or pain.

You see, he puts these absolute and extreme words in there for the first things have passed away. But he's basically doing, he's saying, not this, not this, not this. Why? How could such a thing be? Because all the first things were all those things were given. What are the two things that everybody says are certain in this life? Death and taxes. You're going to have death and taxes here? No! No death, no taxes.

The Lord will be the first politician that will keep His promise. It will be wonderful and it will be free. But it also says that the people that are there have eyes, they have a mind, they have a body, because otherwise it wouldn't be possible not to have to use them. It's got to be very similar to what it is here. There will be similarities.

It won't be us walking around saying, boy, this is not like anything we've ever experienced. We will say, this is everything that previous life should have been. This was everything that is the very best of the previous world and then some. We won't be saying, boy, this is really just all odd, very strange. There will be things that correspond. We will just say, wow, this is as good as conceivable and then some. Yeah, you're quite correct. Let's look at the words found a little more closely here.

This is on Page four, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is, see that word among that I bolded, among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them. Boy, He is emphatic, isn't He?

What's the problem now is as people walk around the globe, unsaved people, what's their problem? They're separated from God. That's called spiritual death. They're separated from God. Even when we as believers, can we experience spiritual death as believers? Yes, we can.

Romans 6.23. The wages that the sin nature pays is death for the believer.

But in here, no separation whatsoever. And why the triple emphatic? God will be among them, among them, among them. You want to be close to God? No problem. It's assured. Real close. Real close. The other thing that we underline there is the tabernacle of God is among men. He will dwell among them and they shall be His people and God Himself will be among them. We put it in bullet form here. A tabernacle is an abiding place.

To dwell is an abiding action. To be His people is an abiding personal possession. And fourthly, to be will mean abiding presence. Abiding place, abiding action, abiding personal possession, and abiding presence. These are greatly and deeply assured here. The Lord has from before the foundation of the world sought for us to have fellowship with Him. at whatever expense. Isn't that interesting?

Even at his own expense, entirely. By the way, where's all the money going to come from for all this? Well, it can't come from the fish in the sea. Can't come from the fish in the sea. You've got that right. Yeah. What's that? It will grow on trees. Yeah, kind of. Basically, we worry about money as a human exchange vehicle between us. That won't be necessary or an issue. You won't bother with it. You don't need to worry about it. As a matter of fact, streets are paved with gold. I don't think money is an issue. You won't be worried about your carbon footprint either. Okay.

John tells us in verse 4 that the Lord will wipe away every tear. The word tear is given in the singular. He's not going to wipe away some tears, not going to wipe away most tears. He is going to wipe away every tear. No exceptions. Not going to be just some sort of a substantial improvement.

Oh, that's better. You know, there are things, I mean, I've got all sorts of weird things and they keep cropping up from my Lyme disease experience. And I hunt around and look around for things that, you know, make something better. None of this is better. None of this is better. This is all best. There is no better in this New Heavens North. It's not even some substantial improvement. It's all the best. It's over-the-top best.

One of the things I had in the last paragraph before, verse 5 there, think of the thing that pains you the most perhaps in your body, maybe even your mind, maybe even in your past. Something that was done to you or something you did to another. We know that God has a purpose in everything. You know that even those pains he will use, we know that God is able to soothe pains of heart in this life.

But this means, in this verse, no more. No more. That's the end of it. No more, not of any kind, ever. This is not a relative improvement. This is absolute. Verse 5, And he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Most things? No. All things. Right?

He said, Write, for these words are faithful and true. You, John, who are finishing up your life on earth, where there is still death and mourning and crying and pain, write this stuff. Isn't this amazing for John to do? Here he stepped into a place. There's no more mourning or crying or pain. Write that down. Using a pen from this world and using ink from this world on a scroll from this world and give it to the people who experience mourning and crying and pain. Tell them about this. Write this, John.

For these words are faithful and true. A declaration in New Testament times of something that was legally verifiable. It is most certainly the case. You can count on it. It's a legal certification, if you will. It's faithful and true. Words that are verifiably true, absolutely certain. They would hold up in a court of law.

We've seen this phrase before more than once and we'll see it again more than once more in Revelation chapter 22. So you see the bullets there starting from chapter 3. In chapter 22 he will say again that these words are faithful and true just so we get the point.

These words are for real even though they haven't happened yet. You see I think that's one of the reasons why he keeps having John write faithful and true. He says, this hasn't happened yet. As a matter of fact, as you look at the book of Revelation, there's a whole bunch of Revelation that hasn't happened yet. So he has to keep telling them, look, pinch yourself, you're not dreaming.

This is the real thing. I'm telling you all this stuff in advance. I'm showing you these things in advance. They are most certain to take place. Verse 6 then, in the middle of page 5, says, Then he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.

So this is the second time that we've read here in Revelation, it's done. Revelation 16, 17, we heard the Lord say the same brief sentence, when the last of the tribulation judgments had been poured out. Now we read that it is done, but there is nothing more to be done at all. with this world's evil affairs and personalities. When he says that he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, these words bring us back to the study we surfaced on in the early chapters of Revelation.

So now you have a chart on page 9. It should be a color printout. It looks like this. And that puts together a number of phrases that start through Revelation and actually originate from the book of Isaiah. We give the passages in Isaiah 41 through 48.

The bottom line is that the claims of Christ are claims by title and by action that are a claim for God himself. That's what all those X's and arrows and whatnot are pointing to. This chart demonstrates the deity of Christ. Christ is God. I am the first and the last. Who said that in Isaiah? God. I'm the beginning and the end. Who said that in Isaiah? God. It's clear in putting these things together that he is making a direct claim to be God. So, anyway, we won't belabor that, but feel free to study that out. Okay.

While we won't have time to go into details now, you may recall the passages in Revelation referred to the first and the last, beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. These passages clearly point out the deity of Christ. In these passages from Isaiah chapters 41 through 48, the Lord God says He is the first and the last, beginning and the end. We're going to see the Lord Jesus refer to these things again in chapter 22. On the top of page 6, our Lord also tells us that He will give to those who thirst from the spring of the water of life without cost. What? No price? No taxes? Certainly, it must be some kind of a surcharge. A fee? Wow. Life. Sounds to me like a health plan. Doesn't it to you? With no fees associated with it. Boy.

First we see that there are references to when John wrote about our Lord's meeting with the Samaritan women at Jacob's well. Here we quote from John chapter 4, 13 and 14. Jesus answered and said to her, everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again. This is the water of Jacob's well.

But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. Another detail that jumps out at us from Revelation chapter 21 is that while there is no longer any sea, as we're told in verse 1, There is no shortage of water, and unlike the water of the ocean, which never satisfies thirst, this water will be ultimately satisfying.

It will be Christ himself supplied to us without end and without bound. Ever been really, really thirsty? really, really thirsty, and you finally take a drink of water and go, oh, wow, that's exactly what I needed. This will be like that only it won't be just your tongue and your, you know, insides feeling like, ah, yes, this is what I needed. This will be a deep, deep satisfaction. A satisfaction always. The life of Christ is supplied without cost.

Isn't it amazing that even though our Lord states and restates this truth that there is no price we can pay for it, that there is no way we can gain what He has brought about at His own expense. You can't come up to Him and say, how much does this cost? Why can't you come up to Him and say, how much does this cost? Why not? We're trying to end in His grace. Yeah. He paid for it absolutely. Because it's priceless? It's priceless, yeah. There's no way we could even begin to touch it anyway. That's because God's character is grace. The reigning principle is grace. We breathe and live grace.

If we could come up and say, Free isn't what I want. He said, sorry, that's the only way you get it. You want to pay for it, you can't do that. Free isn't what you want. Sorry, you just can't have it. Because it only comes free. That's the only way it comes. Once in a while we'll have songs that show up in the hymnal where it talks about I owe him this and I'll pay him back. No, no you won't. You don't owe Him, and you can't pay Him back, and you never could, and He never intended that you do. That's what grace is. We don't owe the Lord our life, as the words go, my life, my all. Humbug. It's grace.

You can't even begin to pay for it. There's no way to do it. It's like a vending machine and there's no way to put a coin or money in. You just keep pulling the handle. But there's no place to put money in. It doesn't respond to that. It shows the futility of church programs. Yeah.

A lot of church things are all geared up around pledges and you owe this and we owe him this and owe him that. Nancy and I joke we used to go to a church some decades back where we had plaques all over the place. You know, this was dedicated to so-and-so, and this was dedicated to so-and-so. And we used to joke that everybody in the church is dedicated except for the people. You know, everything is dedicated, but just not the people.

Okay. Yes. When you're talking about living water before. Yes. Doesn't scripture many times refer or use water as an analogy to the spirit? Yes, that is true. Do you think that could have any meaning as far as living water? Like eternal spirit? Here is the interesting thing.

Who indwells you? Does the Holy Spirit indwell you? Who else indwells you? Christ. Christ also indwells you. The reality is that Randy was going through some passages and actually the Father involves you too. So while the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons, what's interesting is this water we see both associated with Christ and the Holy Spirit. And so this is like, you know, This is an instance where we have multiple persons of the Godhead involved in our spiritual supply, if you will. Verse 7, He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

So here we have the he who overcomes. By the way, how long had it been since we've seen that phrase? It had been back in chapter 3. Chapters 2 and 3 is talking about the one who overcomes at the end of each of the messages to the seven churches. John is almost uniquely the one in his writings who writes about Christ having overcome the world, John 16, 33, and about we as believers being the overcomers, 1 John 5, 4. Who is the one who overcomes? He who believes.

Back when we started our study in Revelation earlier this year, we included a chart on overcomers in the handout. The chart is reproduced at the end of this handout, page 8. Let's turn to it. One of the things we do there in that chart on overcomers is we show that the overcomers were promised something in each of the messages to the seven churches.

And we give the reference and give the quote about to him who overcomes, for example, to the message to the church at Ephesus, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. And what do we find here in chapter 22, verse 14? Reference to the tree of life. What you find is as you go through each of the things that is promised to an overcomer, it shows up in chapters 19, 20, 21, and 22. It's fulfilled. It's fulfilled.

The other thing to point out in this, notice how personal and individual these words are in verse 7. Have you ever worried that when you get to heaven, there's just going to be a huge mass of people? I know God loves me, but there's all these people here and I don't know if He even notices me, I suppose. But one of the things that's going to be cool about heaven, although there will be a great number of people there saved, a very large number, Look at the way God personally speaks individually.

Did you see that? He who overcomes. Not those who overcome. He, singular, who overcomes. His God, my Son. Individual, personal relationship with the Lord. The Lord does care about you personally and individually. Does that make sense? The Lord actually does care about you personally and individually. Our relationship is with Him.

Page 7. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. One thing is, remember we said before, if you're wondering what the second death is, it tells you right there, right? The lake that burns with fire.

Now, why do you think the Lord brings up all these things here in verse 8? Why bother talking about them? I mean, they're kind of ugly. That's what we're saved from. Transferred from darkness to light. 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11 is one of those. And you notice some of these same things and similar.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals nor thieves nor the covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. were some of you.

You were defined by what you did. These are written as nouns. You have the label by what you do. We talked about previously about people being positionally in, identified with their sins. And this certainly spells that out. Identified by what they do. Yeah. Could this not be said then that it's God's last plea for mankind to turn to Him? Yeah.

And let's ask the question, in verse 8, why is it important that these people not be there? People that are defined by these actions. Why is it important they not be there? Why can't God just say, hey, let bygones be bygones and you come too. of Isaiah is that they're rebellious and they are being disobedient to the natural order of things and inconsistent with God's character. So, you know, it wouldn't work. Yeah, let's think about that.

Everything in the New Jerusalem and everybody in the New Jerusalem has a character consistent with God Himself. The reason these are on the outside is because their character is not consistent with God. They can't be there. Everything in the new heavens and new earth is consistent with God's character.

Yeah? More importantly, their righteousness is not good enough. That's right. They have to have the righteousness. On the one side, their evil is certainly not God's character. On the other side, the best that they can pull off, their righteousness, that's not the same as Christ's righteousness. The unbeliever is in sins. The believer is in Christ's righteousness.

It's not because any of us are perfect or impeccable. That's not the point. The point is we have been made to be in Christ and to have His righteousness and it all happened by grace. Nobody earned it. Nobody paid a price for it. It's that simple. It's all by faith.

Whose righteousness are you depending on? And the only way that's going to happen is by faith. It's by God's doing that we're in Christ Jesus, and therefore, by being in Christ Jesus, we have His righteousness. So what we've been looking at here this morning is how we have placed our faith in Christ, and what that's going to mean for our eternity.

We don't know everything. You might think of asking, or you look at this, even as we go through this description, and it describes a lot more. We could still ask more questions. Well, what will this be like? What will it be like to go up and eat of a tree of life? What will it be like to have heaven on earth? I mean, we're used to, you know, heaven's up there and we're here. God is among us, among us, among us. What's that like?

Well, there's a lot of things where we could ask questions that aren't answers to. So, what God is asking us to do is to walk by faith in the spiritual facts that are revealed. He says, I'm not going to tell you everything yet. Possibly I couldn't. But, for what I have revealed, I want you to walk by faith in those things.

And when you get to this place that's being described here, we'll say, ah, of course. Just like that, when you're real, real thirsty and need water and finally drink some nice, clear, cool water and go, ah, that's it. This will be that to your soul. Never to thirst again. Okay? Never to thirst again. the deepest satisfaction possible, and then some.

When we were studying Isaiah, it also talks about how that's going to change Jerusalem, I guess it's the New Jerusalem, because there's going to be water coming out of the mountains, and there's going to be streams of water emanating from New Jerusalem, and the desert will be water, I mean, it refers to water consistently, and it's coming from the source. Now, returning to the question, did we answer the question, why no more seas? One thing is, two-thirds of the earth is covered by seas and pretty much, you can summarize, that's salt water. Would you like to drink some of that? Would you like to drink a lot of it? Probably not a good idea, right? Instead, what you'll have, there will be no more sea, but you'll have the source of water, Christ himself. See, all the ocean that's out there pictures this vast amount of water, when in the end, what is it picturing?

Christ. He is the water that we need. He is the source of life. Let's pray. We've got people standing outside the door here. Lord, we thank you for what you've spelled out here. What a wonderful, hopeful thing this is for you to three times in one verse say, you'll be among us, among us, among us.

And no separation, no saying, oh, I wish I had real closeness with God. It will be there, most assuredly. No regrets. No, I wish this and I should have that. It will be a place of deep and complete and total satisfaction where we will, in rolling ages to come, learn more of your grace. We thank you for that and pray in Jesus' name. Amen.